On Saturday, President Trump’s redcaps organized a nationwide protest against Sharia Law in America. While the notion of Sharia Law in America, where just about 1% of Americans practice Islam, is absurd on its face, it also ignores the issue of defining what exactly Sharia Law means. That is something that not even Islamic scholars can agree on, but invoking the deepest depths of Sharia Law did enough to frighten those weak enough to think they’re under attack (they aren’t).
The organizers are ACT for America, who the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as an anti-Islamic hate group. They have the following reasoning:
“We, at ACT for America, are committed to protecting women and children from Sharia Law and its impact on Muslim women and children including honor killing and Female Genital Mutilation. We must ensure that every woman and child enjoy the protection afforded by the U.S. Constitution.”
Normally, I don’t agree with the MAGA crowd, but all the Sharia Law bills racing through state legislations are certainly troubling. As are the anti-Constitution bills. Obviously, that’s sarcasm, but there’s plenty to protest this week. None of it gets the redcaps riled up though because their ramifications are a bit above, “I think Islam is bad and I am scared.” Here are some things this week that are actually worth protesting because they, in reality, present real, tangible issues for the American people.
Dodd-Frank Repeal
Officially titled the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” the 2010 bill passed in the wake of the cataclysmic stock market crash that nearly took down the entire world’s economy. Dodd-Frank’s goal was to prevent another 2008 crash through strict banking regulations. It has a lot of questionable parts to it, but completely removing the bill wholesale from the law will inevitably lead to the same sort of dangerous trading practices that led to the 2008 crash. The Senate didn’t even try to give lip service to a new bill like they did with the American Health Care Act and Obamacare, they just voted to outright remove consumer protections in the name of the mythical free market. The same free market that cost people their homes and livelihoods a decade ago.
AHCA Rule 14 Invocation
Recent polling suggests that fewer than one-in-five Americans support the American Health Care Act. And why should they? It destroys our health care system by tossing tens of millions of people off health care. Instead, a big, fat tax cut for the rich. People have issues with Obamacare, myself included, but the American Health Care Act is repeal and reform, if reform means reforming the bottom line of billionaire bank accounts. The invocation of Rule 14 means that the Senate will skip debating the bill and go straight for the vote. The American people don’t want this bill, they want true health care reform, and this is a 1% tax cut disguised as health care reform. They’re jamming a wholly unpopular bill that will literally kill tens of thousands of Americans, through legislature without giving even lip service to the idea that it can be discussed.
James Comey’s testimony & the Reality Winner leak
With James Comey, we saw him testify in front of congress. There was a lot to unpack there, but his revelations with regards to election tampering were troubling, specifically this (transcript thanks to Politico.com):
Strip any political leanings or motivations from the Comey testimony. Look at just that. Just those words. The former FBI director flat out states that the Russians interfered in our election, and he stated that unequivocally. Pair this with President Donald Trump telling Lester Holt, unequivocally, that he decided to fire James Comey because of the Russia investigation and you’re left with some curious facts to try to reconcile.
Strip names and politics from this and look at the situation. The FBI Director came to the President of the United States of America and provided him with information that a state organization, who has been enemies with the United States for the majority of the last century, potentially tampered with the election. The President then fires the FBI Director for not ceasing the investigation into tampering with the process fundamental to American democracy.
Then comes Reality Winner, who leaked NSA documents to The Intercept that the Russians had attempted to hack the voting software directly in the days before the election. She revealed that the NSA had reputable and reliable information stating an attempt to assert direct influence over the election. This can’t be brushed aside as “fake news,” as Winner now faces charges for leaking the document, which confirms its veracity.
We need to get to the bottom of this Russia issue, but the president and those waving Kekistan and American flags don’t seem too interested in doing so. It’s a direct attack on our democracy, not an ethereal threat of the United Sharia Law States of America, which got the MAGAs all riled up today. It’s easy to protest against something that will never happen and is the equivalent of buying a tiger-repellant rock.
There is a lot threatening the country, both foreign and domestic. Luckily for those who mobilized on Saturday to protest Sharia law, Sharia isn’t one of them. There’s no reasonable universal adherent to Sharia, no more so than Christians follow every single word of the Bible. It is not something that can be protested as a threat because it is simply not a threat. There are, however, threats to American lives, livelihood, and independence that went ignored this week in lieu of protesting a non-existent issue.